Shelter Island Letters to the Editor

Why the secrecy?
To the Editor:
A recent issue of the Reporter supplied the community with an extensive article about the town’s efforts to provide housing for those working here.

An arm of our town government, the Community Housing Board (CHB), listed as a committee on the town’s website, provides housing via a license it grants to homeowners to afford people living quarters.

This committee/board held a very interesting meeting at 7 p.m. Monday, April 25. In attendance was the board less a co-chair, an applicant, and four interested parties, I being one.

No one of us four would have known about this meeting had I not gone to Town Hall to ask when this group was next meeting and I was overheard by someone in the know.

First, I reviewed the postings on the board in the hallway. Not finding anything, I went to the town clerk’s office, which had no record of Monday night’s meeting. I then went to the supervisor’s secretary, who also had no knowledge of the meeting and said that the clerk for all boards was out of her office. Another town employee heard my inquiry and filled in the blanks, saying the clerk had taken the afternoon off because she had to attend the CHB meeting that night.

I rallied three others who I knew would be interested in the meeting, during which I asked, “Why the secrecy?”

The clerk said in essence that the Town Clerk’s office was wrong, that it was on the calendar. Co-chair of the committee, Mary-Faith Westervelt said, in essence, that the Reporter should have had someone covering the meeting. I was thereafter told by a Reporter staffer that it would have been covered had it been on the town calendar.

Ms. Westervelt said it was “on their website”.

I know many more than four people are taking an interest in the CHB’s activities these days or the Reporter would not have recently devoted a full page to this subject. What a shame that those were excluded because that meeting was obviously not on the town’s calendar.

For all, I visited sitown.us, then “committees,” then “community housing” where I found their calendar of a few more of the CHB’s scheduled meetings. For those who do not access the internet, you won’t know about these important meetings unless in the future they are added to the Town Clerk’s calendar and, therefore, addressed in your/our newspaper.
HANNAH S. DINKEL
Shelter Island

Property dispute
To the Editor:
An article in the February 11 issue of the Reporter (“Homeowners sue over disputed strips of land”) stated that Martha Baker, Brad Goldfarb and Alfredo Paredes filed a suit to clear ownership of property claimed both by them and the Village of Dering Harbor.

The source of the confusion dates back over 100 years, when the village reduced the size of Shore Road and Gardiner Way.

Following the reduction, the small excised strips of land became part of the abutting property owners land. At least two of the current trustees’ properties along with every other property owner along Shore Road and Gardiners Way were marginally benefited. The official village map was adopted by the Board of Trustees in 1932. Correspondence between then Mayor Charles Lane Poor and Village Surveyor Otto Van Tuyle confirms both the boundaries and the village’s intention.

That Mayor Tim Hogue and the trustees are confused about these strips of land, given the evidence, is unclear, or why the village would even take the position that it is taking. These small strips of land have no value to the village and may create liabilities for village taxpayers. Martha, Brad, Alfredo and their predecessors have paid taxes on and maintained the land for a 100 years. It costs the village nothing to formally quitclaim any questionable claim so clarity would finally and forever be established.

This would be consistent with the history of village development and the well-documented intentions and actions of previous village administrations. Instead, for no gain to the village, once again Mayor Hogue leads the trustees and village into a lawsuit. Not for the first time.

The mayor and trustees have a well-documented history of engaging in lawsuits, often dragging them out for years. They spend significant taxpayer money, but not once have they prevailed. Efforts to get an accounting of the amounts expended are ignored.

They have sent unenforceable, threatening letters to residents and drafted unenforceable laws. They even ignored their own advice, as Village Attorney Joe Prokop recently lectured village residents stating that property title is determined by deeds and other public documents.

I ask the village to fairly consider the interests of all taxpaying residents and quickly conclude these property line disputes without litigation.

If the village is in possession of documented proof of ownership, please finally share it. Don’t waste any more taxpayer dollars.
BILL UNGER
Shelter Island